Professor Emeritus John F. Stolte

About my research

Professor Emeritus John Stolte completed his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Washington, Seattle, specializing in the experimental micro-sociology of learning, social interaction, and small groups. He and his mentor, Richard M. Emerson, published the first laboratory experiment demonstrating the effect of relative exchange network position on power-dependence/negotiated social exchange as determinants of material transaction outcomes (Stolte and Emerson, 1977). His subsequent experiments focused on the legitimation of structural inequality (Stolte, 1983), the formation of different justice norms (Stolte, 1987), the methodology of experimental narrative vignettes (Stolte, 1994), and cultural value framing (Stolte and Fender, 2007), among other topics. From 2016 through 2022, he consulted with and taught courses at the University of Texas MD Anderson School of Health Professions. His most recent publication is Structural Power-Dependence and Social Negotiation in Exchange Networks, a book-length research monograph (Brill Publishers, 2025).